Tuesday, September 5, 2017

We
ended up NOT going to McMinnville.Air
quality has shifted.Yesterday we were
at a Very Unhealthy and McMinnville was moderate.Now we're at Moderate and McMinnville as at
an Unhealthy level worse than Roseburg - which seemed more breathable the last
time I was there.And forget
Eugene.As there is no direct line from
Myrtle Creek to McMinnville, we'd have to take I5 and through Eugene - which
may have been worse off than South Umpqua all along.

This
morning I read that I84 was/is closed due to the smoke (here).That's crazy.We are stuck . . . fires north of us (Washington and Canada) fires east
of us (Idaho) fires south of us (California) fires to our West (Oregon) Schools
have closed or are on delay due to the smoke.Jenna had school.That floors
me.I mean, yeah, the air quality is
better today than yesterday.Still can't
see the sky or mountains though (I may be seeing more trees) Our state is on FIRE! (here)

There
has been concern about the crops - particularly those that have been growing
grapes in vineyards.They wonder how the
wine will be effected if smoky grapes are used.That is just one of many crops.I
remember the air quality in Medford was not so great when our family joined others
with a pear picking project.I wondered
then how the smoke would/does effect the produce.

The
family next door gave us three buckets of fruit this weekend.We left them on the back porch and so they
have been exposed to the smoke, but I don't taste it.There are more peaches than we can eat before
they start to spoil. We decided to freeze what we can and pull it out as we
need it.Using this video to help guide
us, Roland and I decided to start on the peaches this morning.I say start as there is a lack of trays and
freezer room.So we have decided that we
will work on eight peaches per day until we have them all.We have also bagged frozen apple slices and
will continue with apples before moving on to pears.

So
there is your update for today. BTW THANK YOU to Better Homes and Gardens for that Tutorial. Very helpful!

MYRTLE CREEK — On the Myrtle Creek Library’s reopening day
Monday, Tanner Reed, 5, was enthusiastically transforming a Minions T-shirt
into a book bag that he could use to take home a pile of books about dinosaurs,
unicorns and monsters.

Tanner didn’t like to think about what would happen if the
library closed again.

“I’d feel really sad,” he said.Tanner was one of a dozen kids who turned up for the first
day, not just of the library’s summer reading program, but also of its
reopening after a three-month closure. Like the other smaller library branches
of the former Douglas County Library System, Myrtle Creek’s doors were shut
April 1. It’s the fifth to reopen, and it’s operating with an all-volunteer
staff.The kids were thrilled to have books to check out and fun
activities like creating their own book bags out of T-shirts and hearing
volunteer Karen Rivera read an unusual take on the Three Little Pigs story.

In
her version, three piggies from Myrtle Creek went on to have exciting careers
while living in different kinds of homes — an adobe house in a Colorado pueblo,
a rainbow cottage in California, and a portable teepee for a nomadic lifestyle.
The kids had other suggestions, such as an igloo or a castle.

It was a good day for Rivera, who was devastated when she
first heard the Myrtle Creek Library would be closing in the spring. On its
last day, she wiped away tears as she spoke about its loss with The
News-Review.So how was she feeling Monday?“Better.”Derrick Teig attended Monday’s summer reading program with
his children Liam, 2, and Ezmea, 4, as well as his wife Jessica Teig.Ezmea loves doing crafts and getting books. She tries to
teach her brother to read, her father said. Liam favors pop-up books.“I was pretty blown away when I heard they were going to
close it down,” Derrick Teig said.“I remember being a kid, getting my library card and how
much fun it was, feeling important,” he said.Marley Myrhe, 8, was enthusiastic about the anime graphic
novel his grandmother was checking out for him — “Maximum Ride” by James
Patterson.His grandmother Laura Hollifield said Marley enjoys reading
the novels and then drawing the characters. She was also checking out “The Lego
Adventure Book” for him.She said she enjoyed libraries herself as a kid and then
bringing her children, and now her grandchildren to them.“I don’t want that to get lost,” she said. “The library is
so important.”Hollifield said she’s “so thankful for the volunteers” that
have made it possible for the library to reopen.Behind the scenes, it wasn’t an easy job. Even the book
checkouts had to be done by hand.There’s still a concern about being able to fund raise
enough through the year to keep making liability insurance payments.Rivera said at one point, before the city agreed to allow
the library to continue in the building, there was even talk of opening in the
old laundromat building at the corner of Oak and Second.Bob Heilman, a member of the Save Our Libraries PAC that
unsuccessfully attempted to get a library district tax passed in November, said
at one point the Douglas Education Service District talked about moving in.
However, he said they’d have taken a substantial portion of the building and
weren’t offering to pay rent.Heilman said he anticipates it will take between $15,000 and
$20,000 a year to keep the library open, including $5,000 for insurance, as
well as the costs of internet, telephone and other services.Nevertheless, on Monday, morale was high.“This is great,” said summer reading program coordinator
Serena Theiss. “We had people here ready to roll when we got here.”Having the kids back after three months closed is “huge,”
she said.“It’s great to see kids back here in the library. We’ve got
people checking out books. We’ve got teenagers on the computer. We’ve got all the
ages in here right now,” she said.The kids were also scheduled to begin creating miniature
homes similar to those the three pigs in Rivera’s story built — paper tee-pees,
popsicle-stick rainbow houses and adobe homes made of clay.

Volunteers Sheila Johnson and Rindy Hart were working on
some rainbow house models Monday morning.Johnson said the library reopening is a relief. Hart said
she came to the library as a child and now she’s helping keep it open for
today’s children.“That’s just full-circle awesomeness right there,” she said.

Volunteer Jeanmarie Kollenkark sported a pig nose,

ears and
tail as part of the reopening of

the Myrtle Creek Library on Monday.

Summer Reading Program coordinator Serena Theiss,

left,
speaks with Hunter Myhre, 10, as she attaches a

reading frog to the wall Monday
at the Myrtle Creek Library.

Reporter Carisa Cegavske can be reached at
541-957-4213 or ccegavske@nrtoday.compictures taken by Mike Henneke/The News-Review

The Myrtle Creek
Library will reopen Monday with an all-volunteer staff, and kick off its summer
reading program right away.

Like many of the
smaller branches of the former Douglas County Library System, the Myrtle Creek
Library has been closed since April 1. Sutherlin, Oakland, Riddle and Reedsport
have since reopened their libraries.

The Myrtle Creek
Library is unique in the county in that it is now managed not by the local city
council, but by the nonprofit Friends of the Myrtle Creek Library.

DeMarsh said the group
has about 80 people on a list of potential volunteers or donors, with a group
of 21 that has passed background checks and plans to volunteer through the
summer.

On Friday, DeMarsh
said they were working on getting connected to the internet and hope to have
that up and running in time for the opening.

She said it's
important to note that library patrons will need to re-register to get new library
cards.

The 17,000 books and
other items in the library's collection will be available for checkout on day
one. However, a computer catalog system isn't yet available, so books will be
checked out the old-fashioned way, with the patron's name and the item being
written down.

"People are still
willing to help us out, so I'm very encouraged by that," she said.

The library building belongs to the city, but it's the Friends
group that signed an intergovernmental agreement with the county to take charge
of and check out items from the collection.

One of the biggest challenges the Friends face is paying for
liability insurance. The main concern, DeMarsh said, is whether the library can
continue to raise enough funds to pay for that insurance and keep the library
running into the future.

For now, the emphasis is on the summer reading program, which
will be held Mondays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Coordinator Serena Theiss said the activities will follow a
math, science and engineering theme adapted to fit the local library. Monday's
activity will be a Three Little Pigs theme with kids crafting three different
types of houses, a teepee, a rainbow cottage made from popsicle sticks and an
adobe house made from a pinch pot. Field trips will also be held to different
local businesses, including a visit to a water testing lab at Umpqua Research
Company.

The programs are conveniently timed to end just as the local
swimming pool opens up the street, Theiss said.

The doors will open at 10 a.m. Monday. Regular hours will be
from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays; 4 to 8 p.m.
Tuesdays and 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays. The library will be closed Fridays and
Sundays.

That gives us more hours/days than
when we had first moved in!We’ve been
without a library for just over three months now.Thanks to the members of the Friends of
Myrtle Creek library, we had our grand opening yesterday.Our kick off was for the summer reading
program “Build a Better World”

Children were told to choose a tee
shirt which we would turn into a bag so they had a container to put prizes and
books in.I read the story of “The Three
Little Pigs” but my three pigs started out life living in Myrtle Creek and each
left the state to live in three particular kinds of houses: adobe, stick or
tepee.We then allowed the children to
pick which house they would like to build and now have them in the display case
at the library.

The grand opening was a huge
success.It is the busiest I have ever
seen the library since we moved here just over two years ago,

Carissa had come to cover the
story.She remembered having had
interviewed me before.She didn’t
remember my name, but she remembered that I had been sad.That’s quite impressive from three months
back and all the libraries she has covered ever since.

I am so grateful for having the
opportunity of being a part of this historical moment.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Riddle
is moving forward with a plan to reopen its library and even check out books.

The
smaller branches that were once part of the Douglas County Library System shut
down April 1, victims of the financial crisis faced by county government. While
the county’s Library Futures Task Force continues to search for a long-term
solution, many cities have come to the conclusion their best bet, at least for
now, is to take charge of their own libraries.

Previously,
libraries had been told by the county they could reopen, but only as reading
rooms. Under that model, county-owned books would remain with each branch, but
would have to be read on site and couldn’t be checked out. The county would no
longer provide a computer catalog.

But
Riddle began looking into a way around that. It’s been investigating smaller
computer catalog services it could contract with on its own, and it sought an
intergovernmental agreement with the county that would allow it to provide its
own catalog and resume checking out books.

Monday,
the Douglas County Board of Commissioners approved Riddle’s proposal.

Rita
Radford, director of library services for the Riddle City Library, said Monday
she anticipates Riddle will become a model for other cities that want to reopen
their libraries but aren’t satisfied with the reading room approach.

Radford
said Riddle will be able to use the county’s computers, scrubbed of the
county’s software, and acquire catalog software of its own. The city, which
owns the library building, will provide internet and Wi-Fi service.

Radford
said most of the other library branches have expressed interest in following
suit. Riddle is forging ahead with the approval of its city council, which is
eager to have the library reopen.

Riddle’s
reopening is planned for 3 p.m. June 6, and a full slate of summer programs for
kids is in the works. It includes a gardening program with Master Gardeners,
story telling, music, a Peter and the Wolf musical presentation, a puppet show
called “Dogs to the Rescue,” and a rock painting “extravaganza.” Family events
will include a pre-solar-eclipse party and a professional magic show.

“It’s
going to be a lot of fun,” Radford said.

The
library has a list of about 40 volunteers, who will keep the library open five
hours each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Radford
is a volunteer herself, though she was formerly a paid library assistant.

“It’s
a passion for me. I just love the library and I want to see it continue and be
a help to the community,” she said.

Radford
said she’s very thankful Riddle received the go ahead to work toward checking
out books.

“The
reading room is a cute little idea, but it doesn’t serve the public very well,”
she said. “Very, very few people have the time to sit down and read at the
library. Most of them would rather go home and read in their pajamas.”

Three
libraries — Reedsport, Oakland and Sutherlin — have reopened already, and
several more plan to reopen this summer. The Reedsport branch, now called the
Reedsport Public Library, has also requested an agreement with the county that
would allow it to check out books. At this time, though, it can’t afford the
cost of a cataloging system, according to City Manager Jonathan Wright. Both
Oakland and Sutherlin have begun local book collections so that some books can
be checked out.

Unwilling
to see their libraries die, community members and city leaders in those towns
were ready to reopen virtually the day their libraries closed down. They had
dozens of volunteers signed up to staff their libraries. In Sutherlin, for
example, where the library shutdown lasted a single day, a team of 50
volunteers has signed up to keep the library open as many hours as before
closure. While they aren’t checking out the county-owned books, they’ve
collected several hundred of their own that they are checking out. Reedsport
plans to put its own regional district up for a vote this November. Riddle,
which plans a June reopening, and Reedsport are working on obtaining catalog
systems so they can check out the county-owned books at their branches. These
cities have become examples that others, including Roseburg, should seriously
consider following.

Libraries
in some communities remain closed, awaiting some action from the county. It’s
their patrons who have suffered from that miscalculation, and if Roseburg
doesn’t move very quickly, their library patrons will suffer as well. A
community without a library is a poorer, and ultimately a dumber one. Roseburg
owes it to its citizens to give them what they voted for — a library whose
doors remain open. We hope to see a solid plan for how to do that emerge as
soon as possible.

Sutherlin,
Oakland and Reedsport have been more proactive. They’ve opened their libraries
again as reading rooms, by using all-volunteer staffing, and Riddle this week
gained permission from the county to pursue obtaining its own cataloging system
so it could check out books once it reopens in June.

Sutherlin,
Oakland and Reedsport libraries have already reopened, with intergovernmental
agreements (IGAs) signed with the county. The IGAs are necessary because while
all the cities outside Roseburg own their library buildings, the county owns
the books. Sutherlin is open the same hours as before the branch closures, with
volunteer staffing, while Oakland is open on Fridays. Reedsport has even
gathered enough money to keep a paid librarian, at least for the next three
months.

Yoncalla
has signed an IGA to reopen as a “reading room plus,” as has Riddle. The “plus”
allows these libraries to check out books if they acquire their own catalog
systems. Riddle plans to reopen at 3 p.m. June 6. Glendale is close to getting
an IGA signed. It plans to reopen in the summer, and have a bookworm mascot,
and a summer reading program. It’s short on volunteers and money, but plans to
publicize its grand opening with a poster campaign and a Fourth of July parade
float. Myrtle Creek has an active group of 50 volunteers and has formed a
nonprofit to raise funds. It hopes to have the library reopened by July 1.

Winston
and Canyonville do not yet have plans to reopen their libraries. Winston
leaders are concerned about a shortage of volunteers.

Drain
has scheduled two community meetings at 7 p.m. May 25 and 2 p.m. June 3 at the
Drain Civic Center, 205 West A Ave. to determine what residents want to do
about the library. The city has had offers of financial donations, but is short
on volunteers.

Riddle had their grand-opening and library kick off the day that
Jeanie passed away. Jenna and I had gone to the library on the first as
she had a dentist appointment and we were already in the area anyway. She
signed up for the summer reading program though she is already doing one
through school and will be doing one through Myrtle Creek.I was told I could sign up for a library card
but that it would cost eight dollars (as we don’t reside in Riddle) We’d like
to incorporate Myrtle Creek, Canyonville and Riddle to operate together and
thought I would weigh it out.

Roland told me to go ahead and get a card so that I could check
out some audio books to listen to on the road.I wish he had gone to pick them out himself.He always ends up making an audio book
purchase as I don’t do well with selection – not that there was much to choose
from.Mostly Nora Roberts collection
which I just didn’t think he’d be interested in.

Myrtle Creek's summer kick off does not start until July
3. At this point we don't even know where that will be as the city has
not made a commitment for location. But I will save that for another post.Oh, we’re not done.There is and will be more.

Friday, June 16, 2017

"As a result of
declining timber receipt and dwindling reserve funds the Board is tasked with
making very difficult decisions to ensure that basic public safety needs and
other essential services for the community are met." stated County
Commissioner Chris Boice.

Those
are the last words found on the Douglas County Library home page.The web page may appear to offer more options, but they are no longer linked to
anything.It's a dead page.

This
was the caption on November 30, 2016 Charlotte Herbert wrote the following
letter to the News Review Editor:

Stop the talk, vote for the library

" How can anyone think library
supporters have not thoroughly explored ALL funding solutions? Library staff
and supporters have been thinking about alternative funding for 20 years. Ever
since 1996, when repeated budget cuts made our libraries fall below minimum
standards.

"Can we use volunteers?
Josephine County now funds and operates its four branches by relying on many
volunteers. This is so unworkable that both staff and volunteers are now
planning a May 2017 ballot measure like ours. Can cities pay more? Not one city
has stepped forward in the past five years to help Douglas County run the
library. Can't donors step in? We have donors, but they do not fund operations,
just "extras," like new books.

"The Save Our Libraries
Committee has boxes of research on libraries and how to fund them. They've done
countless interviews. They've held countless public meetings . . ."

To add to that concern, this was
posted on November 19, 2016:"Once upon a time, we were so dedicated to improving our community
that we as a county banded together to form a single library system. It was
well funded and fully staffed by professional librarians. The branches were
open often enough that people could visit them regularly. And a beautiful new
library was built to house the Roseburg branch, in part thanks to generous
donations from the Ford family.

"It
was emblematic of a time when we looked forward, planned for the future,
invested in our kids, valued learning."It’s
a good story, yes? But it may turn out to have a very unhappy ending. The
voters’ rejection of a library district this month, we may well be facing the
demise of the Douglas County Library System."Since
you are reading this editorial right now, we assume you are generally in favor
of literacy."

"There were
tears from a Glide teacher who said she “just can’t believe people failed” a
library district measure earlier this month, and cheers for the father of a
home-schooled girl who raised money for the library through a bake sale."

It's not that voters were opposed to keeping libraries opened so much as it
was against paying even more in taxes.Evidently the city of Sutherlin had already opted out before the bill
was proposed.Property taxes were/are
too high before the bill.There was
talk about Reedsport possibly joining forces with Coos County, which seemed to
make sense in my mind.It always
appeared to be disjointed whenever I looked at the map

It
actually takes less time for us to get to Coos Bay than to Reedsport - not that
I've ever been to Reedsport.I was told
that it is over a two hour drive.

MYRTLE CREEK — The Myrtle Creek branch of the Douglas County
Library System closed its doors Thursday.

In its final hours, library patrons read and talked, used the
computers and collected books, as a documentary film crew from San Francisco’s
Serendipity Films moved around them, gathering stories for a film on the
history of the American public library and the challenges those libraries face
today.

And the challenges in Myrtle Creek and Douglas County are very,
very real. The county government, strapped for cash, announced it would be
unable to fund the county libraries through the end of the year. A November
ballot measure that would have created a library district tax to keep the
libraries opened was rejected by voters. Subsequently, the closure dates were
announced — April 1 for the 10 rural branches and May 31 for the main branch in
Roseburg. A task force has been convened to seek a long-term funding solution.

Meanwhile, library boards, city councilors and a host of book-loving
volunteers are scrambling to fill the breach in Myrtle Creek and other cities
around the county.

There’s been a library in Myrtle Creek in some form for 105 years,
and quite a few town residents say they have no intention of giving it up.
Already, 35 volunteers have signed up to work shifts at the library and they
plan to reopen it on July 1.

On Thursday, the prevailing mood at the library was sadness.

Karen Rivera, mother of 12-year-old Jaime Rivera, wiped away tears
as she talked about what the loss meant to her and her daughter. It was hard
enough adjusting to a small library open only part-time after they moved here
from Salt Lake City a couple years ago. She and Jaime were reading the book
“Zillah and Me” together Thursday. They’ve been reading together since Jaime
was born.

“I’m really bummed,” Karen Rivera said. “The library offered a way
for us to get together, to feed our minds. We’ve always been a poor family, and
being able to go to the library programs has given our family something to do for
free.”

“Being able to borrow books from the library to gain information,
that was awesome,” Jaime said. “Now this is going to be ripped away from us,
and it sucks.”

This wasn’t Marilyn Brouillard’s first rodeo, though. Brouillard,
longtime volunteer and incidentally the mayor’s wife, lived in Redding,
California, almost 30 years ago when the Shasta County Library System closed
down.

Back then, her son checked out a collection of books beginning
with the words “The Last.” On Thursday, Brouillard copied his example.

She checked out 10 books with titles like “The Last Star,” “The
Last Sin Eater,” “The Last Battle,” and “The Last Apocalypse.”

She doesn’t know if she’ll get to read them all before the final
book return date of April 25.

“I just never thought I’d go through this a second time,” she
said.

She said she’s impressed, though, by the number of people who have
signed up to volunteer.

Myrtle Creek Librarian Hannah Merrill is out of a job, but said
she tried her best to make the library’s last day a happy one for the people
who love it. She said she plans to return to school to get an English degree,
and would like to become a fiction editor.

“I’ve always had a love for books,” she said.

Connie Earp wondered where the children would go. The library is a
source of knowledge for them, she said, and she loves watching their little
faces light up during story time.

To have that disappear, she said, “it’s just the saddest thing.”

Five-year-old Jameson Bury clutched a book about dinosaurs as his
mother wondered what they’d do until the library reopened with an all-volunteer
staff in July. His mother said she visits the library every week with Jameson
and his little brother.

“I can’t read library books for story time any more,” Jameson
said. Asked if that made him feel sad, he nodded.

WINCHESTER
— Umpqua Community College is inviting the public to visit its library. As
Douglas County commissioners move forward with plans to close the county’s sole
remaining library in Roseburg, UCC wants the community to know its library is
still an option for people who love books.

“We
just want the public to know they still have a place to go and check out
books,” McGeehon said.

The
library is open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 7:30 a.m.
to 5 p.m. on Fridays. The library is not open on weekends. For more
information, call 541-440-4640.HBO put out this news segment video:

Some cities have been working at creating a library or at
least offering a reading room strictly staffed by volunteers.The city of Riddle has continued to fund
their building.As Jenna had a dentist
appointment in Riddle about a week before we went out of town, we stopped by and she signed up for their
summer reading program - even though Myrtle Creek will also be sponsoring a
reading program in addition to Coffenberry Middle School.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

(I Thought I Would Need a Sad-Face Icon but Received a
Rainbow Instead)

Thursday
was the last day for checking out books.The library is closed now.All
checked out media is to be returned to the drop box by April 25.

There was a
rumor going around that a film crew would be there interviewing patrons as they
have at many other libraries across the nation.Nobody knew what time.

Jenna and I
left the house just after 12:00 and headed to the library with books and games
in hand.Someone sat at our regular
table; she was using the Wi-Fi - I think. The mayor had come with his wife and
had taken several pictures before the film crew arrived.

As volume in
the library seemed to increase, Jenna and I decided to move outside.The sun was shining in our face as we neared
the bench between the parking lot and front door.I suggested we move across the street from
the parking lot and read while sitting on a bench over there.Quite a gamble as the element switch had been
tampered with all day:pouring rain, no
- sun, no - rain, no - sun . . .

Jenna saw
the camera crew from Serendipity Films pull up and we went back inside.It was just after 3:00.Meanwhile,
Carisa Cegavske, a reporter from "The News Review" had come to interview the librarian
and patrons as well.She started with
our librarian before the film crew was fully set up.Jenna spotted a man with a glowing blue stick
over his belt.

"That's
a blue mike," she announced. The technician
was quite impressed that she knew that and asked her if she was planning on
getting into film.

Turns out
the "mike" he held looked more like a dust mop that had seen its fair
share of cleaning.

After her
conversation with our librarian, Carisa moved on to the mayor's wife.We were sitting at the table nearby and I
could see Jenna's wheels turning. I
literally had to h0ld onto her.Jenna
and I are friends with the mayor and his wife and I was not willing to lose
that due to Jenna's silliness and disrespect.

"Absolutely
no photo bombs!" I loudly
whispered.

The mayor's
wife had tons of information.She has been
through this before when Redding closed down its library.She wasn't going to move to another location
unless there was a library.After she
had fulfilled her years being on the library board, I filled out an application
and took her place - well sort of.She's
a pro and I'm still trying to get my feet wet.

I found it amusing that those who were filming
decided to incorporate Carisa's interviews into their film.Perhaps it had been pre-arranged, but it
didn't sound like it had.When Jenna
started answering Carisa's questions, the camera immediately turned on us.Jenna was thrilled.

It hadn't
been my intention to stay at the library all day.I had to return at 6:00 for the last board
meeting - which evidently the film crew knew about and asked to be a part of it
- although I had not known that at the time.

Jenna and I
returned to the car.Just before I was
about to pull away, I told Jenna that we had to go back into the library as we
had not signed a release form. (I hope Serendipity got a release form from Carisa as well, as I think she was in all the patron shots - or at least her voice was) After we
got that taken care of, we returned home to eat.

The vehicle in which film crew had
arrived was still in the parking lot.Jenna asked if they would be at the meeting too.I didn't think they would, but they were -
along with an additional amount of public which actually doubled our usual attendance.
That was kind of different.

After the
meeting had ended, everyone went outside so the film crew could take one final
shot of the librarian closing the doors.Once we were all outside, we found a rainbow right over the library.Instead of fading (as rainbows often do) the
colors became more vibrant.It looked to
us as though our library was "the pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow.We all stood outside the parking lot to get
pictures.Unfortunately my camera wasn't
able to capture the awe.

The Serendipity
cameraman was out there filming.I made
a comment that it would make a great ending to their documentary, as for me,
the rainbow represented hope.He then
turned the camera on me.I wasn't
expecting that.I wish I had made the
same profound comment.It was cool to
have such an awesome ending to the tears we all felt for that day.

I came home to find Jenna also taking pictures of the rainbow and the sunset - her pictures came out way better than mine

Saturday, June 28, 2014

A week after Jenna’s first art class
had finished, UTA had a problem when one of its trains derailed downtown.The same train we would have been on had we
still been commuting downtown.

I guess it wasn’t just UTAs problem,
but anyone driving that particular path downtown.It appears that it was covered by all of the
media during some point of day.But I
hadn’t heard about it until after 6:00 p.m. I guess by then it had become “old news” and I
didn’t know anything more about it until the following day when I typed “UTA
derailment” on Google.

The Tribune article was the first
one that I came across.Comments can be
submitted and read at the end of the article. Many hurtful comments were made toward
UTA and thus UTA passengers, but just as many had come to the defense of UTA
and those who may have no choice other than public transportation.I admire the courage of those who submitted
their comments in defense of the passengers – many who do not choose to use public
transportation but are empathetic to those who do.

I didn’t read even half the
comments.It was hard to read the ones
that ripped into the inconvenience of having to put up with rails and public
transportation in the first place.They
are the ones who should be most grateful, I would think.Certainly they have been inconvenienced by
the construction and the building of UTA and perhaps getting behind a bus once
in a while – but really, if they would look at the whole picture and consider
the many passengers who use public transportation as a convenience so that they
don’t have to drive or park downtown, public transportation makes it so much
easier for those who do choose to drive because there are less cars to deal
with.Daily traffic could be so much
worse.

Slow moving or rerouted or stand
still is an inconvenience.Generally the
traffic itself is not life threatening.It doesn’t rob us of possessions or health.It’s an inconvenience.I’d much rather deal with horrible traffic
situations than vandalism, or a tornado, or being shot.Be grateful for public transportation and
traffic lights and stop signs and traffic cops and so forth because when they
aren’t present, things go awry.

So thank you budda and
freedomfighter and for others who came to the defense of public transportation
because (as pointed by some users of public transportation) there really are
several who don’t have a choice.We ALL
need public transportation.It does make
a positive difference overall.

For other coverage you can click here or here. There is even a video on youtube.

About Me

I am a mother, a sister, a daughter, a friend . . . I am a memory preserver and I enjoy learning. I have read a few Blogs and am a bit reluctant about starting my own. I don't believe I have anything pertinant to add to the Bloggers walk of life. (to learn why this blog is so named, read my first post created January 1, 2012) http://beneaththewraps.blogspot.com/2012/01/introduction-beneath-wraps.html